Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 42

Slayers: Alive

Episode 110: Information! Theories and Alternatives

At Wolf Pack Island, Zelas continued her explanation for Xellos. "When Lina fought Fibrizo, the shield from the Lord of Nightmares around the world was momentarily brought down and Lamentation entered the world. It fused itself with the remains of the Green Alchemist and set a series of events in motion, which are as you witnessed. As for the other remaining pieces of the Stillness, they are the Void and the End. Where is the End and what exactly is the End still remains unknown to me, but it is likely that Lamentation was the only fragment that was kept out of the world until recently. The others most likely entered the world during its creation and remained dormant in their hosts, waiting for the missing piece. As for the Void, it was dormant inside an elf girl, the nature of her condition unknown to those around her. We misunderstood her too, but it has all been revealed. The Void was inside Yuuyami, or Onyx as she is now called."

"That Void is the same being that attacked at Seyruun?" Xellos concluded.

"Yes," Zelas confirmed. "Lamentation comes first to weaken the body, then the Void to weaken the mind. This problem is worse than I expected, even us monsters will suffer losses if this goes too far. We are relatively unaffected by the famine of Lamentation, if anything we benefit from the despair. Enough negative energy has been accumulated faster than monsters can consume it. In a sense we delayed this without knowing it, but the Void is free now, thanks in part to the cycle of despair and in part to the Lord of Nightmares herself. That was the purpose of the spell casted on Onyx, to weaken the seal."

"All of this happened because of Lina going overboard with the Giga Slave. It's just as it has been forewarned," Xellos recalled with a strangely amused grin.

"Maybe even in larger proportions, hearing about the end of the world is always different from witnessing it." There was no worry in Zelas' voice, instead there was excitement. Even if she did choose to torture the world in eternal chaos and not to let it end, she still enjoyed the despair. She just had to make sure the world didn't break to pieces completely or the despair would cease to exist along with everything else. "This is the second phase; the Void will try to push people into such a deep depression that they'll denounce their emotions in apathy and hopelessness."

"From negative emotions to a lack of emotions," this was the dangerous part, Xellos realized. "Monsters would have nothing to feed on."

"Worse yet, even monsters will begin to question their existence after being surrounded with such emptiness. Emotions play an important role for a monster, as does identity and a sense of self. Monsters are astral beings, thus cannot be affected by Lamentation, but the Void can seriously affect monsters," Zelas warned. "That means we'll lose our precious fun and chaos and we can't allow that."

"This really is the end of the world. The Stillness wipes out the physical part and even the mental part leaving nothing. Not even chaos, especially not chaos. So it's my mission to stop all this and ensure that the world continues to exist in chaos." Even so, Xellos still had a very important question that he needed to clarify. Since Zelas was feeling so generous in sharing information, he thought he might as well get the full story now. "Why was it really necessary for me to become human?"

"So that you may have a shield," Zelas explained. "Though Lamentation is tainted with the remains of the Green Alchemist, the Void is almost pure and will most likely eventually unite with Lamentation. The being that comes of that fusion will be much more powerful, especially in the astral sense, as that is the original nature of the Stillness. A purely astral being, such as a monster, would be in terrible danger getting too close to the main components of the Stillness. So far you've fought minions, but have not faced the boss. Attempting to fight as a pure astral being would only place you in danger of being absorbed. Your physical body will serve as a shield to guard your astral body, keeping it anchored to the material world. This is not without consequence, as your human body is mortal, however, this is a needed danger given the situation. In the end, it is the only effective strategy."